EL MONTE

city, Los Angeles county, Calif., U.S., 12 miles (19 km) east of downtown Los Angeles. The site, on the banks of the San Gabriel River, is considered the western terminus of the Old Spanish Trail (sometimes called the Santa Fe Trail, though unrelated to the trail of that name from Missouri to New Mexico). Early on, the site was merely a camping place for pioneers, but in 1849 a stage station was established there, and the first dwellings (of adobe brick) and a schoolhouse were erected in 1852. El Monte was incorporated in 1912. It is now a residential suburb, with some light industry; its population increased more than fivefold between 1960 and 1970. Pop. (1990) 106,209.